Campuses

John Lundy

Core Faculty, Interdisciplinary Studies

Before joining Antioch as Core Faculty Dr. Lundy held teaching appointments in many philosophy and interdisciplinary programs and departments: University of Guelph (Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Program) (Philosophy Department) McMaster University (Philosophy Department) Thompson Rivers University (Department of Philosophy, History, and Politics) Humber College (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences). Dr. Lundy’s ongoing work in normative social and political theory takes up an interdisciplinary research program that combines moral philosophy, social theory, and political science, in order to develop a conceptual understanding of the contemporary world. While his academic interests are wide-ranging, the organizing focus of his work is the application of normative analysis to a range of social and political issues. He is especially interested in egalitarian theories of justice, democratic theory, and the continuing development of thought in the Critical Theory tradition. Dr. Lundy is also interested in the influence of culture and politics on art and media (particularly film and photography) and vice versa. Connected to these interests, he is both an accomplished, international award-winning photographer with a consistent history of solo exhibitions and collaborative projects, and a dedicated student of cinema with employment experience as a film curator for several festivals.

Educational History

PhD in Philosophy—University of Guelph (2012)

MA in Philosophy—York University (2004)

BA (Honors) in Philosophy—University of Guelph (2003)

Research

My ongoing research in social and political theory has involved taking up an interdisciplinary research program that places a particular emphasis on democratic and critical social theory with special attention to the tradition of moral rationalism. This project is also concerned with the actual function of practical reason in public, democratic forums, and the potential for facilitating moral/political discourse across national/cultural divides in order to deal with issues of common concern (such as global conflict, inequality, environmental instability, and the use of emerging technologies) in a finite, globalized world. This has necessitated an account of how rational will-formation can be translated into the legitimate exercise of political and legal authority. Since reciprocal participation in these processes must itself be underwritten by certain capacities, accounts of rights, justice, and equality-seeking social movements are of central significance to my project.

I am currently working on a book on human progress—in the broad sense. Value theory or normative theory in general tries to offer an account of what is good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust. The question of progress is centrally concerned with whether, how, in what ways, or to what extent, we can move towards actually realizing these values through concrete, historically situated processes?

The first part of this project seeks to defend the idea of progress (both as a guiding social and political aim and a concrete historical phenomena) from a range of its more radical critics, and then to articulate an essentially critical theoretic account of what constitutes progress. The second part seeks to analyze human being’s technological nature, the phenomena of technological progress and, most specifically, its complex relationship to genuine human progress.